An apt metaphor

Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-Rhode Island, writes in today's New York Times Op-Ed pages of a meeting of a handful of Republican senators after the contentious 2000 presidential election. At the time, the Senate stood at 50-50 and Vice President Dick Cheney would have the deciding vote. The senator from Rhode Island thought that the closeness of the election suggested that cooperation and compromise were in order. After all, President-elect George W. Bush had campaigned as "the uniter not divider."

Mr. Chafee writes he "was startled to hear the vice president dismiss suggestions of compromise and instead emphasize an aggressively partisan agenda that included significant tax cuts, the abandonment of international agreements and a muscular, unilateral foreign policy." Mr. Chafee said he "was incredulous."

In a letter to Mr. Cheney, Mr. Chafee writes, "I believe we must maintain discipline both in discretionary spending and in proposals for significant tax cuts. This time of continued relative prosperity and peace is an extremely important opportunity for our country to stay on a firm pathway toward elimination of the debt."

Mr. Chafee "hope(d) the new administration will be open to proposals to reduce the country’s reliance on foreign oil through energy conservation and greater investments in mass transit."

That was in the winter of 2000-01, a full nine months before 9/11, more than three years before the invasion of Iraq.

Mr. Chafee's moderate position in Congress is quite well known. According to the senator, nearly two-thirds of his constituents approved of his performance in the Senate. Appointed to serve the unexpired Senate term of his late father in 1999, Mr. Chafee was a member of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee. He was one of only a few senators — and the only Republican — to vote against the war. And yet he lost the election to a Democrat.

Mr. Chafee advises the new majority to "find common ground for the common good." But Mr. Chafee should well understand if they don't, after all, as he told the Associated Press there are benefits to being a member of the majority party.

In the same story he decries the "pack mentality" in Congress.

"People don't like to step out," Chafee said. "They need a pack to go anywhere. That's not good for the country."

But when asked if he would change parties for the remainder of his term, he demurred. He didn't want to seem like he was "flying the coop."

In other words he wants to appear to be a chicken rather than a mustang. A more apt metaphor for the Republican rubber stamp Congress has yet to be uttered. Too bad it took six years of worldwide suffering before it became clear to the rest of the country.